CRAFTSANITY

Oh I am exploding inside!! Not outside of course because no one else on our farm would possible be excited about the little piece of information I just discovered...so here I am sharing it with you! I can buy a felting needle attachment for my Bernina sewing machine !! Machine needle felting!! For embelishing things! Like little girl dresses and quilts! ...since that is all I sew these days..

More to come.

Mommies need special privledges

Maybe I need to be more assertive. 

Maybe it's because I grew up outside of New York, and things just move slower up here in the country...but I am thinking we need to pass legislation for Mommy Rights. There should be a law saying that mommies with crying sleepy babies can run stoplights. We should have the right of way and be allowed to cut in line at the checkout. Or how about drop off childcare like IKEA has? I think we should have special parking. Not necessarily next to the front of the store like Handicapped parking, but perhaps near the place you are supposed to put your shopping carts in the parking lot?

Oh and about shopping carts, those little kids ones, cute as they are, only cause one thing. Trouble. Many of you must feel like I do about the grocery store. It is a deplorable place to go with small children. It is not fun on the best of days. It is not fun to try and keep your toddler from running that little cart into the wine shelves
when you have a baby strapped to you and a 5 year old begging for everything she sees. Sometimes I have to make two trips. Last night we sat and ate dinner at their cafe. It took 70 minutes, 3 trips to the bathroom, and 2 changes of clothing.
OK I am done ranting, I just feel like other mommies need to know that they are not alone.
Also, I would like a good comeback for those strangers who think I am not enjoying my life right now. Friends don't ask me if I have heard about birth control..just strangers. These people also like to make comments like "my aren't you busy?" or "You certainly have your hands full!' "What do you do in your spare time?" (as they laugh at their funny joke.)
Anyone have any ideas?

Hiking

What a strong brave mommy! My baby was on my back in my Ergo...we all had to climb over this tree which had fallen since the last time we had hiked this road! So glad the snow is gone and we can go exploring around our land again. There are endless old logging roads to trek down, so it's always a fun family affair. I wish we had time to do it more often.

Creativity

Big sis spent the weekend with us. She made the prettiest doll sling with our silks! Finally someone is using all those expensive waldorf us and  German made toys! It was a hot sunny weekend, we played outside a bunch. We hiked around on our trails, had a picnic at our creek, and now we are of to town to spend this beautiful Sunday at horseback riding lessons! Yipee! 

Enjoying the sunshine

Hard to believe it was snowing last week! Yesterday as the rain left us the kids were eating an early dinner, when they looked out our windows to see a huge rainbow across the valley! Now it's 80 degrees  and feeling like summer!

SPRING IS SPRUNG!!

It's here it's here! 

That snow is gone..the Dogwood has bloomed! 

We are going outside all the time, which is so much fun. 

We feed the baby chick's twice a day.which by the way is not so fun, being as how it's one of those chores done quickly on one's one, but takes over a half our when it involves a 5 year old who has selective hearing, a 3 year old who wants to do it all himself, and a baby with his very own plan for everyone.

        And our Parrots are all laying eggs too! 

Our Peacocks are WILD right now. They sing to each other throughout the night. (at least that only happens in the spring) The males chase each other around all day long. I wonder where these two were headed in such a hurry?

Art projects

Well, Spring in Humboldt county brings us lots and lots of rain. With our new baby I have been pushed to my limits of finding creative ways to keep the kids happy. We painted the rain today on egg shaped watercolor paper, and then decorated the eggs with sparkles and crayons. We do lots of playdough, and the kids are getting really creative with it. They built a whole farm yesterday. 

When the sun comes out we go on nature hikes and see what has bloomed since we last were there. We listen to the roaring sounds of the river, which we can't see but we can hear it! It sounds so strong! 

We are awaiting the hatching of our first parrots of the year..it's very exciting to check on them each day.

And we poke our heads into the greenhouse. The kids get so excited to see how everything has changed each day. So far only peas, sunflowers and borage seem to have survived our planting day.

Ballet

My little fairy waits for ballet class to start.

Swim class

After 2 months of swim class guess who finally let go of the teacher
and tried it all by himself?! 3 is all about asserting his
independence repeatedly! I love to watch it.

Disney who?

Despite the efforts of media and the environment I have managed to successfully skip over many Disney films. No I do not think I am keeping my kids from any important part of childhood. We read all kinds of beautiful fairy tales. 

And the mother doesn't die in the first 5 minutes!
How do I know I am succeeding?
My first inkling came a few years back, when I was traveling to a wedding where one of my girls was the flower girl. We were looking at a southwest plane with Disneyland written across the side. A huge Mickey mouse face covered the tail. My beautiful Mountain Girl looks at the plane and exclaims "hey - who is that MONKEY?" A ha ! I cheered VICTORY!
Well, maybe not so loud..but I was pleased.
Today it was reaffirmed when my 3 year old found a shirt with a race car on it. "this my new shirt VROOMM" he shouted as he raced around the house. "And who's on your shirt?" my Aunt asked him. To which he replied "Me not know." "VRoom" and he was off again.

ps...I have to admit that we love Pixar films...

Little house on Google Earth

Sometimes I feel like we are living like Laura Ingalls Wilder. On our way to town today we saw a coyote watching the cows, and later, two wild turkeys waddling about in a meadow. Then my daughter asked me if we could go to Candy Land. I told her I didn't think so, to which she replied, "Well then, can we go look it up on Google Earth?" Oh yeah, we are definitely in the 21st century.

Peacocks, baby chicks, and naughty kids.

Well, the snow went away as fast as it arrived. You wouldn't even know it had snowed at all, except for a few shady places. Our little baby is still teething and SO fussy. He's finally asleep and I am hoping the peacocks don't wake him. They are shouting tonight! 

 We were in town the last two days.  My least favorite part of town days is when I can not get my children to behave no matter what. When they do outrageous things that just make me want to hide. Most people smile helplessly, my favorites say things like "this too shall pass - we raised 6!". 

 But of course the worst things happen at the wrong times. You know what - I can't even tell you story. I am too afraid that others might think the same way as this man. And since anyone in the world can read about my little mischief makers... Basically some grouchy old man who didn't have children (or had already forgotten those early years) really let me know that children who behaved like mine were the reason behind the destruction of our beautiful town. 

Yeah...anyone else worried?

What else would you do with it?

....just don't eat it if it's yellow!

Yes by the way that is snow,

Snow? Our fruit trees are blooming, our car windows are down...what else was left outside over the weekend? Well, whatever it was it's buried now. I wonder what tomorrow  will be like.

What the??

A beautiful 90 degree weekend!

MMmmmm Spring

After wishing that it would warm up we had a beautiful weekend, filled with one teething baby who refused to sleep or be set down. It was 90 degrees! We rode our pony, we planted seeds. 30 baby chicks arrived in the mail on Saturday! I packed up our snow gear, and tucked it away in our barn. I even found time to start sewing  the cutest toile dress. When the kids are outside all day the house seems to stay cleaner! The split pea soup we had for dinner seemed wrong - we needed some watermelon! I can't wait for the days ahead!

Another long day

When there is frost on the lawn and fresh snow on the mountains out my window...And it's well into April...well, it's very hard to have a productive day. But we did it anyway! We spent another LONG day in town. We are still working on NOT running everywhere.  So far it just means that we go even slower then before, holding hands...waiting patiently....

Tommorow is a big day! The baby chickens are on their way. 

Cold Spring Mornings

Ahhh..today was an in town day.

In town days consist of me trying to go into 15 places, feed children lunch and dinner, numerous potty breaks, all while maintaining my sanity and getting the children to behave. My kids usually like to pretend they are horses rearing. neighing and leading each other around. Sometimes they are wild horses,. Perhaps I should tell them they could be the most well behaved kind, the ones princesses would own. I really want to know some other tricks to long days. Besides bribery how can I get the wild horses off the floor at Sears?

Also, while I am on the subject: how do you cross a busy street with more children then you have hands to hold? Here's what I envision working: Me with 3 harnesses and retractable dog leashes...like one of those women you see with a dog walking business and a dozen little Jack Russell Terriers at her feet.

Yeah...there must be a better solution Anyone?

April Showers

April rains bring ????????

Brings to us......

April showers bring ??? Bring us much colder weather then along the coast...our spring flowers are just starting to bloom, but I see them everywhere in the well manicured lawns in town. Also bring us frosty mornings...very very hard to garden in..I'm thinking I might just do our gardening project at the kitchen table. I want so very much to grow all our veggies this year. So far though, all the seeds we started last week were dumped into one large pile by the toddler. After a discussion and a pinky promise I think we might give it another try. I am envisioning a tee-pee of scarlet pole beans and calendula soon. In the meantime the rain will pound on our metal roof and we will continue to burn fires in our wood stove. For a few more weeks.

Quiet time

Playdough = hours of golden silence. It is one my favorite things to make for them, since it can be made quickly, and they play with it for hours. Some crafts take longer to create then the amount of time my kids stay interested. Here's my favorite recipe:

1. 3 cups water...add any essential oils, food color, etc..now
2. 3 cups flour
3. 1 and a half cups salt
4. 2 Tablespoons Cream of Tarter (essential)
5. 3 Tablespoons oil
   

Heat all together for a few minutes until it becomes a solid sticky mass, remove from heat and kneed till smooth. Let cool, give to kids!

Sometimes I can sew...

This is the alphabet book I have been working on for AGES!! I'm getting there....

Farm life

        Life on the farm consists of 2 kinds of days. In town days and at 

home days. Although I try to stay at home as often as possible it 

seems like we always need something. Today I cleaned and cooked all day 

long. Cooking while cleaning is really counter productive. (I need to 

be able to order take-out food on days like today..but like I've 

mentioned before...not really a possibilty where I live.)

The baby's now getting his 2nd tooth, so he just wants to be held. We've 

been giving him all kinds of baby food too! He seems to like 

everything so far, and his sister loves to feed him.

Yesterday we were in town all day. We watched a house burn down. It 

was horrible really, but I turned it into an incredible homeschooling 

project. What the firefighters do..what we would do if it were at our 

house..etc. We even got to watch a women fire fighter use a chainsaw!

And my 5 year old, always the one with the quick answer shouts "Good thing 

it's not the ice-cream shop", which we were on our way to.

Ri, insists that he is a big boy whenever and wherever we are, 

always needing to do things himself. "me do it by MYSELLLLF! " He has this beautiful sing song voice and sweet disposition that make it hard to dicipline him at all. And his honesty, even when he knows it's a big mistake..."me do it". The other day when his sis was being herself..as she runs into another room Ri  looks at Papa and says "Ra-ree drive me nuts sometimes....drive Mama nuts sometimes too." 

Farm Life

Today we had a brief moment of perfection. The kind you read about in Waldorf home education books.

"Mother nurses baby in sling, and as baby falls asleep, mother sets up the morning lesson..

Then Mother and school age child do lesson, as toddler pretends to follow along in his own workbook quietly.."

REALLY HAPPENED!!